Public art brochure: Time Top Project - Vancouver

JERRY PETHICKTime Top Project

PUBLIC

ARTvancouver

About the Work

“In 1942 I lived in a house with an arch between the living roomand the dining room; in this arched connecting wall was asmall hole, also arched and holding some household items. Avivid memory of this opening lingers with me. It separated thepresent from another time, through its gateway my imaginationcould soar, like Brick Bradford’s Time Top.” — Jerry Pethick

The evocative idea of the “time top” — a rapidly spinning ves-sel transporting passengers through space and time into thepast or future — was a powerful influence for Canadian artistJerry Pethick. It became the motif and title for his last work:a large, bulbous, three-legged form resting on an intertidalshoal of False Creek’s north shore in Vancouver, just westof the Cambie Bridge. Almost thirteen feet tall and made ofmarine-grade bronze, this curious object attracts passersbyof all ages. There is something friendly and familiar about ityet also other-worldly, its rough-surfaced roundness unem-bellished and capped by a transparent eye/dome. Where did itcome from? What is its function? Iconic yet playful, this sculp-ture evokes a world of wonder and possibility — a world mostfamiliar to the child and the inventor.

Above from the Time Top comic strip by William Ritt and Clarence Gray, c.1935

The earlier time top, a marvel and inspiration for Pethick,appeared in the Brick Bradford comic strips created by writerWilliam Ritt and cartoonist Clarence Gray, circa 1935. TheBradford character was a fearless adventurer who inadver-tently happened upon a “chronosphere,” a time-travellinginvention of a scientist who wished “to unravel the secrets ofthe past and probe the mysteries of the future.” For Pethick,the time top was “a symbol of intelligent technology, an imag-inary device inducing wonderment” that related to his life-long study of the materialization of space.

In his revision of the tale, Pethick imagined the time topaccelerating across the Pacific Ocean and dropping down intothe waters of British Columbia. In fact, the posthumous pro-duction of Pethick’s Time Top, which followed careful instruc-tions prepared by the artist, involved a two-year time andspace journey of its own. In 2004, the Harmon Foundry inSechelt was commissioned to fabricate the artist’s conceptin bronze. The sculpture was then transported to a marinaslip in Gibsons and submerged in the ocean for two years.There, connected to and charged by an electrical currentthat attracted small mollusks and mineral deposits (a pro-cess called accretion), it accumulated a hard crust. Time Topwas then barged, with appropriate ceremony, to its currentlocation on False Creek in Vancouver. Accompanying the sculp-ture on the seawall are four granite capstones inscribed withoriginal Time Top comic-strip images and text.

— Karen Love

Karen Love was Director/Curator of Presentation House Gallery from 1983 to2001, an independent curator for six years and currently works at the VancouverArt Gallery. A resident of Vancouver, she is a member of Doryphore IndependentCurators and a co-founder of CABINET: Interdisciplinary Collaborations.

For more information on Jerry Pethick and the Time Top Project please visitwww.vancouver.ca/publicart or www.biorock.net/timetop. An explanation of theaccretion process is available at www.biorock.net.

Opposite Time Top submerged at Gibsons Marina, July 2006. Photo: Neil McDaniel

“If I was an artist / And I am / …

I would make / Nothing but the buzzing

of wings / And the spilling of air.”

— Jerry Pethick

About the Artist

Jerry Pethick (1935–2003) was a multimedia artist whoinvestigated space, optical phenomena, and perception tocreate innovative, often witty artworks and installationsthat are not easily categorized. He was an inventor him-self, utilizing “low” technology and calling upon unlikelydomestic objects as the raw material for his sculptures. Hewas deeply committed to the research of historic momentsof creative and scientific innovation and this led to his in-terest in transformative phenomena such as the historyof flight, the invention of bicycles, gas and electric light.Pethick’s inquiry into optical research introduced him toGabriel Lippman’s work on stereo vision and the multilensedeye of the fly, circa 1908. This work influenced Pethick'sbest-known artworks, “array” constructions that allowedthe viewer to experience a seemingly magical, 3-D repre-sentation of the photographic image. Jerry Pethick wasco-founder of the School for Holography (San Francisco1971), recipient of the Claudia de Heuck Fellowship for Artsand Science (1999) and in 2003 he achieved a patent for hisapparatus for stereoscopically viewing scenes and objects.

Above from the Time Top Project comic book, 2006. Illustration: Neil Wedman

The City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program incorporates con-

temporary art practices into city planning and development

processes. The program supports excellence in art making

of many kinds—by emerging and established artists, in new

and traditional media, from stand-alone commissions to artist

collaborations. The program aims to encourage a conversa-

tion between artists and the city by providing for the creation

of art that expresses the spirit, diverse visions, and poetry of

place that collectively define Vancouver. The program is part

of the Cultural Services Division and oversees the develop-

ment of public art opportunities throughout the city. Projects

at civic buildings, greenways, parks and other public spaces

are funded through annual civic capital budgets. Private-

sector projects are funded by developments in the rezoning

process. Learn more about this and other public artworks

in the Public Art Registry at www.vancouver.ca/publicart;

subscribe to the Public Art Listserv at the same site to be

notified of upcoming artist opportunities.

Time Top was commissioned by Concord Pacific Group Inc. as part of theirparticipation in the City of Vancouver’s Public Art Program for Private Devel-opment. Time Top is accompanied by a comic book conceived by the artistand a fully illustrated catalogue available through the Belkin Art Gallery,Contemporary Art Gallery and Charles H. Scott Gallery in Vancouver.

Coverpage Jerry Pethick, Time Top, October 2006. Photo: Trevor Mills

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JERRY PETHICKTime Top Project

PUBLIC

ARTvancouver

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